Since Diane Ferraro was named a Titan 100, she has spent the last year as CEO launching Save the Storks’ newest initiative – For Every Woman. The organization collaborated with two other nonprofits that will be bringing a state-of-the-art, custom mobile medical clinic providing women’s healthcare, counseling and wraparound services to the corporate world. “Bringing expertise from different sources to create a solution for a major problem, we will move faster together to fix problems that seemed insurmountable,” said Ferraro.
Save the Storks is in the nonprofit, pro-mom, pro-woman space with a mission to create a story of hope and empowerment for every woman facing an unplanned pregnancy. This year marked the delivery of the organization’s 100th mobile medical clinic to Tennessee.
Ferraro said she has been told that her superpower is a combination of being creative and resilient, which is a force to be reckoned with when solving complex problems. “Running a donor-funded nonprofit, staffed with a multigenerational workforce, requires what might be considered non-traditional approaches when problems inevitably arise,” she said. “When complex problems come up, often the unsung heroes in an organization step up and shine; at Save the Storks, we have seen innovation come out of what appeared to be an unsolvable problem.”
Ferraro said that as a leader she has learned to trust her amazing team and to let people fail forward. “The most impactful way to let others grow into leadership roles is to let them make mistakes, learn from their experiences and sour from the knowledge gained by taking risks and not always succeeding,” she said.
This is advice she provides while mentoring future titans. “The peer-to-peer learning has been instrumental in my growth as a titan, and meeting other leaders has been life-changing,” said Ferraro. “The next generation of titans will benefit from a community of like-minded trailblazers who support each other, build confidence, expand their worldviews as a business leader and build bridges into communities that may very well provide unique opportunities for future growth and innovation.”
As a woman who came out of a long marketing career in corporate America who now leads a national nonprofit organization, being a Titan 100 has been instrumental in opening doors into areas that may have remained closed, said Ferraro. “Sharing the honor with 99 other esteemed, notable, successful and well-respected leaders from various industries has been nothing short of the ultimate gift to someone who grew up with a loving single parent – my dad,” she said.
